The Stupidity Continues in Burma
Reuters reports that U.S. ships head for Myanmar as officials decry delay.
The Air Force has been landing supplies in Thailand, and the destroyer USS Mustin and the three-vessel Essex Expeditionary Strike Force have off-loaded some helicopters there and then headed for the coast of Burma.
The Essex Expeditionary Strike Force is based in Japan and is probably still the USS Essex (LHD-2), the USS Harpers Ferry (LSD-49), and the USS Juneau (LPD-10).
The Essex is the same type of all-purpose vessel as the USS Bataan, that wanted to help after Katrina – 600 bed hospital, water purification capability, helicopters, amphibious vehicles, everything you really need for a coastal disaster. The Strike Force is designed for an amphibious landing and moving people and equipment ashore.
I knew the Captain of the Juneau when she was based in San Diego. She and the Harpers Ferry add to the capabilities of delivering seaborne assistance and acting as temporary docking facilities for other ships .
The idiots in junta won’t let them help. I expect at any time to learn they have hired Michael Brown to coordinate the effort.
4 comments
This utter idiocy on the junta’s part. The people of Burma desperately need help. It’s madness not to take whatever assistance the world provides
The reaction of the junta in Burma is not all that different than what FEMA did after Katrina, and it is both idiocy and madness to deny people in distress all available relief. Get people shelter, food, and medical care, and then return to the politics.
It is idiocy from our perspective. But we are sane and reasonably guilt free. They are paranoid and guilty as sin and they care not at all for the common people. They will never allow any Military force in any form on their land (and most especially NOT American!) The Junta have a lot to hide and want to keep it that way. They are certainly not the only current or past regime that would do the same thing.
The World is in the toilet. I wonder if I will live long enough to see it get flushed.
China is the only one with the influence to change anything, but they aren’t likely to push too hard.
This will spell disaster down the road, because it will strengthen the armed opposition forces with the people, and there will be a lot of displaced people to join them.